The diagnosis is, sadly, no surprise. Sash's fall after football was swift and pronounced, and his arrest in 2014 typified the erratic behavior of those suffering from the disease. Its advancement in his young age, however, is more of a surprise, if only because researchers said they had only seen one other similar case.

Sash's death isn't a problem specific to Iowa football, of course. The University of Iowa was Sash's home for just four of his 16 years of playing football, and as Marc Morehouse wrote in 2014, the University of Iowa has a substantial, multifaceted concussion protocol. There's no reason to think the school came up short in its medical treatment of Sash.

That shouldn't reassure you; it should terrify you. Tyler Sash's life and death as a football player aren't an aberration from protocol; they are part of the protocol. Football killed Tyler Sash.

I agree with Jacobi's premise that other sports have often struggled with the danger they impose - his NASCAR description is apt. As hockey discusses banning fighting, I think the answer is they must. Sorry to share a downer, but this is well done and quite the rejoiner to Harbaugh's "Football is worth it" piece from earlier this year.

All Black Heart Gold Pants Podcast Intros

I compiled all of the BHGP Podcast intros up to now, including some of their one-off ones. It also includes the intro from the short lived Maize Pants collaboration podcast. Listen to it to prepare for the Iowa game today.

New BHGP Podcast Theme Song: Blurred Lines (Iowa Style)

Black Heart Gold Pants, the chaotic neutral Iowa sbnation blog, probably has the best sense of humor of any of the college football blogs. This is probably a necessary condition for surviving Iowa football on a consistent basis.

Their podcast has a tradition of co-opting popular summer songs by applying BHGP's particular brand of anarchic semi-despondency: last summer's version was Call Me Maybe.

They've just debuted their new theme song based on Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. Here's a sample of the corn-fed Iowa goodness:

SEC vs Big Ten Fun

Was just reading a post over at BHGP (LINK) in which Patrick Vint dresses down that latest SEC playoff proposal. The comments themselve make it worth following the link but one of the BHGP contributors threw in a link to the following EDSBS article: